Saudi Arabia takes a page out of Putin’s playbook with a baffling response to Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance

Earlier this week, Turkish media identified 15 men as suspects in the disappearance of the Saudi critic and journalist Jamal Khashoggi after he visited his country’s consulate in Istanbul last week.

The Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV channel aired a segment on Thursday claiming that the 15 men were tourists.

The report seems to be taking a page out of Russia’s playbook in the Sergei Skripal case: After Britain accused two Russian agents of poisoning Skripal in England earlier this year, the two men appeared on Russian TV to claim they were tourists going to visit the country’s famous cathedral.

Saudi Arabia appears to have taken a page out of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s playbook with a baffling response to the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi critic and journalist who went missing after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week.

Earlier this week, Sabah, a Turkish pro-government newspaper, published photos of 15 people it identified as part of a Saudi intelligence team involved in Khashoggi’s disappearance.

They arrived at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport on October 2, the day Khashoggi disappeared, and left the country later that night, Sabah reported, citing photos it said were taken at passport control.

The team traveled on two corporate jets rented from a company often used by the Saudi government, The Guardian reported, citing unnamed Turkish authorities.

Here's the @Sabah article that publicizes the faces and names and travel movements of the alleged 15 Saudi regime operatives who entered Turkey to carry out the abduction and possible murder of Jamal Khashoggi https://t.co/6m9pA3xkAv

Riffing on the Russians’ claims earlier this year, Lister added: “I heard #Istanbul is particularly famous for the 210ft minaret at Sultan Ahmet. But the weather was bad, so they missed it & came home.”

Khashoggi’s fiancée has said she waited outside the premises for 11 hours and never saw him.

H.A. Hellyer, a senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council and the Royal United Services Institute in London, said the Al Arabiya segment most likely showed what Gulf Cooperation Council media outlets “think people in power in their states want them to say.”

He told Business Insider:

“During the Khashoggi affair, before it, and probably long after it, different GCC media are going to be promoting what they think people in power in their states want them to say.

“Whether it’s true or false seems to be far less important than how their ‘loyalty’ is perceived – that’s true across the board, alas, on all sides in the GCC.